Hannibal's Elephant Girl Chapter 1

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Hannibal’s Elephant Girl


by

Ariion Kathleen Brindley



Chapter One

“What is that noise?” I whispered. The river dropped and surged ahead, pulling my log into the swift current. I pushed a strand of wet hair from my face and glanced downstream. What I saw in the dim light of dawn terrified me. “Rapids!”

Massive boulders rose like glistening black teeth from the raging water. I lunged off the log, trying to get away, but the angry river seemed determined to swallow me.

A huge rock loomed ahead. I screamed, grabbing for anything to save me. I twisted away, but my head smashed into the stone, sending flashes of pain through my skull.

The impact knocked me unconscious.

When I opened my eyes, I was pinned against the rock by another log. A slimy green growth covered the rotting bark, and two jagged limbs stuck out like broken arm-bones. I strained to push it away, causing a sharp pain to shoot from the back of my head, and into my shoulders.

The roaring current caught my legs, pulling me into the rapids. I crashed into boulders, and plunged through foaming whitewater until I splashed into a deep pool.

I surfaced, gasping for breath. The slimy log popped up beside me. I grabbed it, letting the eddy carry me around in a slow circle.

Every movement caused excruciating pain. I held on with one hand, and lay back in the water, watching the clouds and overhanging trees revolve in the morning sunshine.

Birds chirped in the palm trees, and a gentle breeze brought the earthy scent of dry land and growing plants. Why was I in the river? My head hurt when I tried to concentrate. All I remembered was two men throwing me from a bridge, but I was too exhausted to care about why they did it, or anything else. I took a shallow breath and let go. When I sank into the cold depths, relief came over me, and the spiraling world blurred into darkness.

Something moving through the water startled me, and then a creature grabbed me around the waist. I struggled and pushed against it, thinking a water snake held me. The serpent yanked me above the surface. I tried to scream, but only coughed and choked on the water I had swallowed.

The snake tightened its hold, trying to crush me. I pushed against the writhing body, but it was too strong. It lifted me until I stared into a large eye surrounded by wrinkled gray skin. Frightened by this dreadful image, I could do nothing but tremble within the creature’s grasp.

The beast blinked and shifted its grip on my wet belly, holding me farther away. Two long horns extended from its mouth and curved along both sides of me.

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I pushed with all my strength. “Let go!”

My shrieking voice startled a flock of swallows from the palm trees. Their wings beat the air in a muffled uproar of flight.

The animal released me, and bellowed so loud that it rattled my insides. The instant it let go, I grabbed hold of what I realized wasn’t a snake, but a long, curling trunk. I wrapped my arms and legs around it, holding tight. I didn’t want the monster to eat me, but I didn’t want to fall onto one of those horns either.

I continued to scream while the beast trumpeted, splashing and crashing his way back onto the riverbank, trying to shake me loose. I held on tight when he jerked his trunk high in the air, howling as if something had bitten him.

Perhaps, in my desperation, I did bite his trunk, but it could not have caused enough pain to justify such a rampage. He stumbled across the sand, crashing through the brush until he rammed his backside into an enormous carob tree. The tree shuddered all the way to the topmost branches, shaking so hard that a large dead section broke loose and fell, smashing onto the creature’s head.

He swayed, his eyes fluttered closed, and then he toppled over, crashing to the ground in a cloud of dust, leaves, and branches. The animal’s head hit a boulder, and his coiled trunk, with me attached, came to rest on the upper side of his massive face.

I sat up and brushed the wet hair from my eyes, trying to catch my breath. I glanced over the still figure of the gray beast. “Did I kill him?”

Laughter came from behind me, and I turned to see six soldiers. They wore thick leather breastplates with carved battle scenes, and metal guards on their wrists.

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“Did you ever see such a sight?” A red-bearded man pointed a gnarled finger at me.

He wore a shiny helmet with animal hair sticking straight up from the top and running in a row down the back. Each man carried a spear and had a sword in his belt.

Another soldier tossed his shield to the sand, laughing so hard he could barely speak. “Obolus, the mighty war elephant, laid out by a child!” He clapped a hand on his comrade’s shoulder. “And a worthless half-girl at that. I doubt she’s even twelve summers in age.”

Wide leather strips with silver trim hung from the soldiers’ belts to form protective skirts over short tunics.

“The brave Obolus,” the first man said, “so courageous in battle he tramples a hundred men in a row, but a terrible girl grabs his trunk and straightaway he dies of fright.”

This brought on more laughter.

I wanted to run away, but they moved to surround me.

“Tonight we feast!” shouted a burly man with oily black hair. He placed his helmet on the tip of his spear, and waved it in the air. “On roasted leg of beast and elephant-ear stew.”

“Oh, yes. Two very large ears.” The red-bearded man drew his dagger and made a cutting motion through the air. The few teeth he had left were sallow and crooked with one broken off, leaving a jagged stump. Beady eyes and a lopsided nose made him appear cross-eyed. He came toward me, motioning for the others to follow.

A chill scratched along my spine like an icy fingernail. What are they going to do to me? I wore only a small loincloth, still wet from the river. I wondered where I was, but when I tried to concentrate, my head ached all the way to its core. I glanced about for some way to escape, but the men tightened their circle around me.

“This could be a serious matter indeed.” Red Beard turned to his friends, apparently waiting to be sure he had their attention. “We must hope and pray that our next battle doesn’t take us up against a legion of half-naked girls.” The men laughed. “For then, our war elephants would surely trample us all to death in their stampede to escape such a horrible engagement.”

Just when Red Beard flipped his knife into a stabbing grip, a tall man with a staff strode through the ring of men. The color of his robe was an unusual red-violet, and his turban was adorned with a golden emblem on the front. A jeweled dagger swung from a woven leather belt. He was much older than the soldiers, but his posture was straight and rigid.

The soldiers grew silent when he walked before them. They backed away, watching the tall man intently. Red Beard slipped his knife into its sheath.

The old man shook his head and glanced from the beast to me. “An evil omen,” he muttered. “That is certain. Many shall perish in sacrifice because of this sign from our goddess Tanit.”

The men whispered to each other, and I could see by their attention that his words carried great weight.

I slipped off the animal and stepped away to study his enormous body. Even lying on his side, he towered above my head. An elephant. Is that what they called it?

A hand touched my shoulder and I jumped away. When I turned, a young man I hadn’t seen before held his cloak out to me. He wasn’t a soldier so I thought he must have arrived with the turban man. I took the cape, wrapping it around myself. I still shivered with fear of the soldiers, and from the cold river.

The cloak brought warmth, but I felt a hundred pains from all the cuts and bruises. My back, arms, head…everything hurt, and exhaustion weakened my legs.

The old man lifted his face to the sky and began a chant. The soldiers prayed, leaning their spears in the crooks of their arms and clasping their hands before themselves. While the others mumbled toward the sky, the red-bearded soldier lowered his head to stare at me. A hungry animal could not have frightened me more.

“Go now,” the young man whispered.

His words startled me. I turned and stepped back, tangling my feet, and almost tripping myself.

“Where?” I asked him. Unlike the soldiers, who were bushy-faced and boisterous, he was clean-shaven and soft-spoken. His brown eyes—the color of almonds and honey—were easy to look upon. He didn’t carry a weapon or wear armor, but he did have a sash around the waist of his white tunic. The sash was made of the same unusual cloth as the tall man’s robe.

He placed his hand on my back, guiding me away from the soldiers, and over near the edge of the forest. “Hurry along that path to the camp and ask for the woman called Yzebel. She will find something for you to eat. Go quickly before Hannibal comes here and sees one of his elephants laid out on the ground.”

I ran along the path leading into the woods. I was grateful for the comfort of his cape, and knew I should have thanked him. The thick cloak was dappled in leafy green and shades of tan. It extended almost to the ground, covering me from shoulders to ankles.

I stopped and glanced back, but the young man was gone.

The large lump on the back of my head hurt more than ever. When I touched it, pain shot across my forehead and into my eyes, making me dizzy.

If only I could lie down and sleep for a little while. A patch of grass, like a soft green bed, lay beneath a nearby oak tree. When I took a step toward the grass, I heard noises in the distance and turned back to the path, concentrating on a dog’s bark, and the clang of metal echoing through the forest.

Not far away, a boy gathered wood beside the trail. He gave me a contemptuous sneer, and I wondered why. One of the sticks fell from his arm. He snatched it from the ground and cocked it back over his shoulder, as if to throw it at me. I kept my eyes on him and picked up a jagged stone the size of my fist, raising it in defiance. After surviving the river, the elephant with his long horns, and the frightening soldiers, I wasn’t going to be intimidated by a boy only a little taller than myself.

He swung his stick, hitting a tree at his side, and then turned to carry his load of wood toward the camp. After he was out of sight, I continued along the path, keeping my rock handy.

Near the end of the trail, a slight breeze brought the delicious scent of food, making my empty stomach cramp with hunger pangs.

The path came out of the pine forest, wound beside a large gray tent, and down a gentle slope into the main camp. Many more tents and wooden huts dotted a series of low hills, spreading across the landscape like a small city.

I followed the aroma of cooking food to the gray tent where a woman stood beside a fire in the morning sunshine. She sliced vegetables into a simmering pot. Several tables with wooden benches circled the hearth.

She reached for a turnip and glanced my way. Her honey-almond eyes narrowed on me. “Where did you get that cape?”

I glanced down, shuffling my feet in the dirt. I didn’t know what to say.

The woman came toward me with the knife in her hand. I stepped back.

“That’s Tendao’s cape,” she said. “Where did you get it?”

I pulled the cape tighter around myself, and then remembered the young man. He had told me to ask for a woman who would give me something to eat. “Do you know of Yzebel?”

“I am Yzebel. Why do you wear Tendao’s cape and ask for me?” She came closer and grabbed the cloak.

I glanced at the knife in the woman’s hand and then back at her face. Knots bulged in her clenched jaw, and her brow furrowed, distorting the beautiful face.

I held the cape closed, but Yzebel was too strong for me. She yanked it open.

The change in Yzebel astonished me. Her stern features transformed so completely that it seemed another person had taken her place. The irritation and anger from a moment before softened into compassion and tenderness.

“Great Mother Elissa!” Yzebel stared at my bruised body. “What happened to you?”






Next Chapter "Hannibal's Elephant Girl Chapter 2" 





Note from the author:

Thanks for reading.

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Ariion

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